the Motorcycle Diaries

Escape!

2006-10-06T10:20:00.000-07:00

It’s been quite a while since I have gone on a meaningful ride. It’s the daily drag to the office and back in Chennai’s stupid choking traffic. I was supposed to leave for home last night by bus, but I decided to ride home like in the old days in college.

When I travel on work, preparing for the trip is brusquer and to the point. You take the bare essentials. You need no back up. Trains don’t breakdown generally! If a bus breaks down, you get onto another bus and head onwards. You take your shaving kit, your chargers, your underwear and anything else can be found wherever you go. It takes 15 minutes, maximum.

When you are going to ride to someplace, or even drive down in a car, things are certainly different. You have to get the tools, fit the luggage boxes, pack things in such a way that they fit in to the carriers. Pack your laptop so that it won’t break. Find a good rope, and fasten your stuff so that the duffel bag doesn’t fall off, and the rope doesn’t get into the wheels. You work out the route, grab a good map and memorize the distances and landmarks. Your favorite pair of jeans has to be washed and ready. Your glove must be findable. Your windcheater must not smell of moths. Your bandana must not be lost from the last trip. Your gloves must be searched. The spare bulbs, cables and oils have to be remembered and packed suitably. It gets hectic the previous evening.

It feels like preparing for an important event. Like you are going to an interview and want to make sure you turn up in your best clothes and charms. It’s almost similar to such an event. Only this time, you turn off your mobile, sit on your saddle and do some real riding. You are not making an impression on anybody, not pleasing anybody to get something. Your machine is the only thing that will listen to you, and it will decide your fate and you it’s. Then it is the open highway, racing and fun and some peace. Escape!

“I” is nothing

2006-06-23T05:05:00.000-07:00

I rode from Vijayawada to Chennai for a last time. I was riding like I was possessed by the winds. I made 480 kms in 6 hrs flat!

Due to the heavy cross winds, I could not do more than 110 kmph. The average speed was around 100 kmph. I have never done it this quick. A Volvo does it in 7 hrs, the fastest train in 6.5 hrs. And a Royal Enfield in 6 hrs!

It was going easy, apart from the odd pedestrian who wants to die only in your hands, and the one off buffalo that wants to chew cud in the middle of a tarmac road that is burning hot.

It was a strange sense of achievement for me. What I was feeling cannot be explained in clear terms now. The fact that I could fly was one feeling I can remember always when I ride, an open road, a powerful horse, early mornings, star filled skies, the wind’s roar, frequent villages, rustic eat outs and the odd smoke and the frequent song that the mind hums within itself.

I am my God in those times. I control a machine ruthlessly. I defy fate that could be different if I had taken a train. I create risks for myself and then I beat them to safety. I create a respite for myself, a comfort zone, where I am unreachable to anyone, not liable to answering. I have Escaped, from the ordinary, from the mundane, from man. I am nothing then. “I” is nothing. But that is bliss!

2 lanes are enough

2006-06-03T00:19:00.000-07:00

India is poised to become a superpower they say. What with the roads become golden quadrilaterals, there is no doubt that India will become one.

One of my truck customers in Vijayawada who operates trucks from Vijayawada to Calcutta told me that his fuel costs alone had gone down by 30% after the golden quadrilateral became a reality. Running time is reduced from 48hrs to 36hrs. Tyre mileage has gone up. Maintenance has come down. Accidents have come down drastically. And so on and so forth.

But for a discerning biker like me, it doesn’t matter, does it? I am looking for a good ride. Some thrills, some pleasure. In such a system of metrics the 4 laners of today fall far short of the conventional 2 lane Indian highway.

In a 4-lane road, there is no upcoming traffic, and all one has to do is keep the vehicle straight and relax. Easy overtaking, no glaring headlight beams. It feels so damn boring!

In a fast 2-lane road, there is excitement on the offing. When you overtake, there is upcoming traffic to contend with. There are these fast cuts, quite pulsating and exciting. And it can be exacting also to the driver. Drivers are usually more aggressive in these road conditions.

India has never needed a dirt track racing league or a formula series, just for this reason. For, our motoring thrills are being satisfied in our everyday lives. All it takes for an ardent motor enthusiast or a dare devil driver to get an adrenalin rush is to take his car or bike to the local highway and try to overtake and race with other cars, bikes, trucks, and quite recently, the Volvos!

You can draw out personality types from the driving styles. There are saints, good Samaritans, the monsters, the bitches, the chronic moaners, the manically sick, the patiently persistent, the timidly conscious & unconscious, the wily fox, the show off assole and so many other types.

When you pit your life against such an array of characters, it is an act of madness that results from it. Pumping heart, sometimes rage, sometimes charity. Amid all this there will be a dog who will want to cross the road to mark his territory. A sudden brake, screeching tyres, the dog yet lives. Feels like God.

The Zahir - with the Luggage Carrier

2006-06-02T22:17:00.000-07:00

Mileage Marathon!!!!!!!!!

2006-05-26T08:47:00.000-07:00

We had a mileage marathon last Sunday at Vizag. Meaning “we call our vehicles and competition vehicles; give them load, and do a mileage test”. The winner gets a cash prize. Simple.

Not so simple guys. We were directly challenging Tata, and we had to be careful. So we did a midnight mileage trial, with one Tata vehicle and one Eicher vehicle. As unexpected, the Tata vehicle gave a higher mileage! Lost sleep that night. Woke my boss up at 3.00 am, and we were having a discussion as to whether the event can be cancelled.

Head quarters said nothing doing. Go ahead. Be confident, and our vehicles will win. So we carried on.

As again unexpected, Tata vehicle won the next day out of the 11 vehicles that participated. We somehow managed to manage the situation! Why all this hullabaloo? Let Tata have the Tata mileage and let Eicher have the Eicher mileage.

Morals

2006-05-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

It got really hot in Vijayawada last night. So much that I could not sleep at all the whole night. Sweat was pouring down me by the bucketfuls. I tried taking bath twice during the course of the night, but to no comfortable end. It sweated more.

It was 4.30 am and I could stand it no longer. I decided to go out to have a cup of coffee. You have to wear those bloody helmets at all times you ride a motorcycle here in Andhra. Just the other day I paid a fine of Rs. 100 at 5.30 am in the morning! So I thrust my wet head into the helmet and set out to drink some coffee.

There was a gentle breeze, and I felt revived under its caresses. I decided to hit the highway to Guntur, my favorite road. I kept riding for about 45 min at slow speed, enjoying the cool air. My back was aching from the lack of sleep, but I was not tired. My spirits were high. The headlight beams of the trucks were amusing to see in the slight fog that was enveloping the morning. The sun was just about permeating through the murky indifference of the night that was giving up so easily, as happens at this time of the year.

I decided to stop at a motel, in plain terms nothing more than a dhaba, with some cots and chairs lying dispersed by the side of the highway that was getting busier by the moment. An attendant, who turned cold only when I did not want breakfast, but just coffee, greeted me with a cold nod. I got the coffee, and I went around to another small shop to get some matches.

I was lighting my cigarette when I heard a lady’s voice asking for a cup of tea. I turned around wondering what a woman could be doing at such a place at this time. She was about 35 years of age, slightly plump, with long hair and flowers longer than them. She was wearing a very shiny saree that was but a cheap imitation of silk. Her face was all powdered; she smelled of some inexpensive perfume, her lips were colored by a shade of red that could be termed too bright.

It took some time for me to come to terms with the sight of the woman I was seeing. It took only a moment to distinguish her as someone who sells sex. I instinctively walked toward my bike, as if it could shelter me from my own notions of being near such a lady in a public setting. I felt more secure near the motorcycle.

The cold attendant never turned toward her, and she had to ask for her cup of tea more than 5-6 times, when there was no other customer to be served. The shopkeeper was just ignoring her. She then produced some coins as payment. The former satisfied as to the prudence of giving her some tea, gave it to her in the end.

I noted that there was a downcast countenance about the woman. Her eyes were nearly wet by the time she had got her cup of tea. Her face was distorted by some torment that could be discerned even in the dull setting.

I observed that there was some audio playing on a loudspeaker. It was a local made drama in Telugu, with obscenities, as would no parent warrant their children to be afflicted with. Pointed deliberations about embarrassing things, double meaning phrases. There was general laughter at some of the jokes by the truckers present and having an early breakfast.

Sex was being downgraded, sullied and sold. The person who sells it is never happy. The person who buys it is never satisfied. The onlooker is always disgusted, though one may feel all the sympathy for the woman. What is a primal need for an animal is still a primal need for man. Man has grown no more than a dog in morality, though we can state fancy phrases and concepts as accepting prostitution as a necessary evil for the society. We have grown intelligent.

The society maintains its propriety; the individual need not lose morality. For some actions can be classed as necessarily immoral, but can be ignored to avoid the sex drive of men being turned toward adultery and its complications. Aren’t dogs better in morals? They haven’t claimed to possess morals, have they? Prostitution is only an indicator of one individual’s moral decadence? No.

It is the outcome of a moderation of values that is required to make a system work. It is the systematic and cold-hearted work of ingenuity worth our applause. Give a man some easy thrills and he will never question the system. His unfathomable moral gravity will feed him with opium and put him to a guilty, yet tranquil sleep. The greater cause of a group of people or a family can thus be won too.

Feed a country with cheap liquor and opium, there will be no revolution for a hundred years. Feed a man with some thin layer of accession over his actions, and he will not mind complying with another set of morals questionably not his own. When will we grow up? When will we be perfect?

My last trip as a free man.

2006-05-07T03:50:00.000-07:00

Last year this time.

I had just finished college. It was april 18th and the exams were over, and I went home, amid very emotional scenes in college. Everyone would be departing today, never to see each other again, may be, may be not.

I was at home for 3-4 days, when I started getting restless with the inactivity and slothfulness I was feeling for quite a long time before leaving college. I started to prepare to leave home. My parents were reluctant to let me go, since this would be last sojourn at home. I tore myself away from home, and went to Chennai, to Haree’s place.

From there I took his motorcycle, a Pulsar 150, and started planning for a week long trip to Kodai, Munnar and Cochin. I bought maps. I planned out everything. The plan was this.

Day 1: Chennai to Kodai via. Trichy. (530 kms)
Day 2: Kodai
Day 3: Kodai
Day 4: Kodai to Munnar (160 kms)
Day 5: Munnar to Cochin (120 kms)
Day 6: Cochin
Day 7: Cochin to Chennai (740 kms)

It was the peak of the summer. I started off early from Chennai and reached Kodai by late after noon. I took a bed at the TTDC dorm for a rock bottom Rs. 80 per day. I managed to bribe a room boy to give me access to a well-heated room with hot water and the works for a mere 50 rupees a day.

It was a nice 2 days at Kodai. I had nothing to do, but to loiter around in my bike, goto some cliff or precipice and wile away time, reading or meditating. It was the peak of the tourist season and there were a lot of people around me like myself, who just wanted to chill out and relax.

I left kodai on a morning, and came down to the plains and then again climbed the hils to Munnar. I have never been in a mountain road more picturesque than this one. The road between Cumbum and Munnar. 50 kms of visual delights, tea gardens, deep ravines, and near vertical gradients.

I took a very comfortable room at a place called Munnar Tourist Home, and stayed there for 2 days. Then I started off to Cochin. I had a friend there, with whom I spent a couple of days in comfort and contentedness.

Then it was the marathon ride to Chennai, 740 kms, via Palghat and Coimbatore. I have never ridden so much in a day. I started off at 9.30 am in the morning and reached chennai at 11.10 pm in the night. I never did more than 90 kmph.

I came back to Chennai, stayed for a couple of days to do shopping and equip myself for my debut as a professional. I then left for Indore to join Eicher, never again to be that free to roam around on a motorcycle. Never again to be so unstressed. Never again to be so open and free.

I recall this now, a year later, because to leave out this trip as a mere memory would be a great injustice to the innocence that governed my actions before I started working. I have never been freer in my life. I have never been so happy, again.

Lost!

2006-02-27T05:48:00.000-08:00

This morning, I was awake early in the morning, and decided to go out on a ride. I did not have plan beforehand. So I decided just to rove the highway out of Vijayawada.

It was about 6.30 am in the morning. There was some dew, moist air, a little bit chill, and the sun was just breaking through those clouds and mists. There is this awe in the beholder, when the night makes way for some brilliance, which then again becomes constant as the day wears on. The amamzing radiance on the brow. The heart is more optimstic suddenly at this stimulus.

There was this road stretching in front of me. Straight. I could see for miles ahead. My eyes were glaring. I was not going fast. Then I found myself singing the song “Senthalam poovil….”…… goose pimples to think that I was singing such a tribute to Nature, unconsciously.

That was when I started doing speed. I had done some 20 kms, I wanted to go on straight ahead, maybe home, maybe somewwhere else, wherever the road would take me. But I knew the reality, I had to be back, shave, wash and go to work. The wanderer in me called me today, but the means of my living defied his free spirit.

Man was born a wanderer. He will want to run towards destiny, toward the unknown where it lies. For what we have seen and felt are but a drop in the great ocean that churns out life.

Venturing out is an instinctual drive, just like hunger, sex and self preservation. But it is the easiest to deny to oneself. A man who steals for a living would not steal anywhere other than his small town. But he will eat, no matter what, when really hungry!

The road will always lie right beneath our feet. It takes but a step with consciousness to go out and be the road to destiny. We could choose otherwise. Stand on the pavement, and watch as people speed away somewhere, God knows where.

We actually manage to get lost without going anywhere.
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My Trucks!

2006-02-10T23:23:00.000-08:00

By the River

2006-01-30T02:58:00.000-08:00

Amaravathi

2006-01-14T03:52:00.000-08:00

Amaravathi

It was a Monday morning, after a boring ritual of going through Sunday in Vijayawada. I had woken up at 5 am, and I did not feel like sleeping again. The morning was cool and I decided to go out someplace on the Zahir.

By 6 am, I had taken bath and I was dressed in my usual jeans and tee shirt, shoes and goggles. ( mind you, it gets sunny by 6 am in these parts!)

I will describe the plan now, as I had it in my mind then. I would goto Amaravathi, and then spend some time there and come back by 9 am and then go to office as usual by 9.30 am.

Vijayawada to Amaravathi – 35 kms.
Amaravathi to Guntur – 34 kms - Highway
Guntur to Vijayawada – 40 kms - Highway

The road to Amaravathi is interesting. There is a place called the Prakasam Barrage across the river Krishna. This is quite at the edge of the city, and from this small dam a road has been carved all along the edge of the river. It’s a narrow, but good road. The road is raised above the terrain, with steep edges. On one side of the road is about a 100 meters of fields, and the then the river, full, this being the upstream part of the dam. On the other side of the road are fields as far as one can see.

This was the season for the plantain trees and onions. Some fields had already been harvested, and they were red, with onions scattered here and there, giving the land a glow in the morning sunshine that was just permeating the dew of the dawn.

There were a lot of other travelers too on this deserted road. That was because of the Buddhist Kalachakra festival going on there in Amaravathi. A lot of important people were descending on this remote hamlet, incl. The Dalai Lama, the CM of AP, a horde of other Ministers and learned people.

I would say this is the most beautiful road I have traveled in on the plains. I have never seen a river so full and so close, or fields that were fresher, or the air so fragrant. Devoid of all human inhabitation, so much that I could not have a coffee till i actually got to Amaravathi.

Soon the road that was hugging the river left the banks and moved inland and the road got wider too. It was wonderful stretch this particular one. Straight double lane road, with empty fields, with haystacks scattered at random. To top all this, there was a flock of birds, cranes I think, because they were white. They were flying above the road, not too high. They were going zig zag, in a uniform fashion, like they performing some sort of synchronized drill. I slowed down the bike, and they went on like this for a kilometer or so. Thank God no other vehicle was there to disturb their rejoicing.

There are moments when we see nature in all her splendor. We feel the hair all over our body rise and a chill resonating through the body. There is like a charge passing through the spine. It happens like a startling realization. Like the effect of a sensation wrung out of the soul, that was muddled within the limitations of the body. The God has just visited the mind. The mind now sees the possibilities, the variety and the beauty.

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began,
So is it now I am a man,
So be it when I shall grow old
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man:
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety. – William Wordsworth

I sped in and out of Amaravathi, after thorough checks done at check posts (The CM was coming). On the way back, I chose to come back through Guntur, after connecting with the highway near Amaravathi. I had to make up time; else I would be late for work. So I sped along till Vijayawada…….

Indulgence

2005-12-07T21:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday evening, went out for a ride on the Zahir. I had an ipod, and there was some good music as I turned it on on the highway.

I was barreling down the guntur road at 80 kmph, enjoying the experience, and singing along at the top of my voice, incidentally, there was no traffic!

I increased the volume and increased the speed also. I felt like flying through the air, and there was absolute silence except for the music and my senses. There was no noise of the wind, there was no engine. I could see a light ahead, and I guiding the machine towards that light.

Good music is heaven and to ride a motorcycle in a wonderful road in heaven is truly indulgence!

Miles to go before i stop....

2005-11-25T04:27:00.000-08:00

I went to college for Sangam 2005, in Trichy. As usual, I rode down there in my motorcycle. It was a ride of about 800 kms, one way.

I stopped over at Chennai for a rest overnight, and I went over to Trichy the next day. There was supposed to be a dance party that night, and many of my old friends were there. And my Thunderbird, rechristened as The Zahir, was the center of attention in the college, as no one had ridden a motorcycle like that ever before.

Girls wanted a ride in it. And many more were just watching, not able to understand why I had ridden down for 800 kms, and spent 2000 rupees for the one way ride, when I could have been present there by traveling in a train, and spending 1000 rupees on a two-way fare.

But little do they know. Riding solves many mysteries for me, and solves many a problem too, like depressions. It is the stimulant that I need to imagine, which would otherwise have to be substituted by a person. Now you all know how difficult it is for me to find the sort of people who can communicate with me! Ya, I admit I am difficult.

When one takes a ride, or a trip for that matter, there starts a new scenario. A new perspective to the days ahead. You have to be at this place by this time. Your bike is getting heated up, so you need to stop. You are feeling sleepy, but all you can do is ride faster. There are those pedestrians and buffaloes that you have to keep dodging. It’s a new set of problems, and a new life for a short period.

Its amazing for the people who do the same thing day in and day out, it starts as a passing thought. I heard of somebody who is a biker. But I will never be one, though I would like to do something like that once in a while.

How many of us will do the extraordinary, for a change if not for anything else? How many of us dare to work for that? I am not too good too!

Somewhere, riding to some place is a great escape for me. I can escape from a rude conductor, an old bureaucratic railway employee, and haggling autowalas and so many other things that people can cause to individual's psyche. I would rather stop at someplace for a smoke where there are green paddy fields on both sides of the road, and lilies lining the road, and there would be no traffic, and I can relax, with no human pretensions and no responsibilities.

It feels like god being so careless. Flaunting life, like its not mine, and thinking like a man who just escaped from a life sentence. With every moment being my last, every breath being my first, and every turn being a decision decided by fate, and every maneuver being the divine grace of God. And I know, there are miles to go before I stop…

I did not go home this Diwali

2005-11-05T23:28:00.000-08:00

I did not go home for diwali. The rains had just relented, and trains were not available. So our hero (meaning: Me) decided to go to Chennai and meet up with a few friends and come back.

I decided to ride the bike and make a trip out of the 2 days of holidays. I decided this on the day I was supposed to leave, during lunch time. I took the bike to the dealership workshop to get it checked, but the mechanic (the only one who can do a Bullet in Vijayawada) was on leave. So I called him on his mobile and went to his home. He had just had a sumptuous meal, a get together of some sorts in his family. He decided that my bike was road fit for a ride of about 1000 kms.

I wound up work by 4.30 pm and went home to pack up and left at 5.30 pm. I got out of Vijayawada amid fireworks and fading light. I rode till Guntur (40 kms) and stopped for tea, and by this time the dusk had started taking its mysterious shape. The road started becoming difficult with insects courting their death at my headlight, and I was wearing an open helmet and my face was full of dead insects. I could not open my mouth to even hum along.

Things cleared up after it got dark and I made it to ongole (160 kms) at around 8 pm. I decided to have dinner here, and had a traditional plate of Andhra meals. I pushed off at around 8.30 pm towards Nellore, some 230 kms away. This was the most enjoyable stretch.

The roads were deserted, with no pedestrian and slow traffic. The road was a 4-lane highway with no traffic coming in the opposite and it was smooth and straight, with signboards popping up once in a while saying “Design speed 100 kph”! This was like an open invitation to speed up things and I obliged and so did the machine. We started barreling along the highway at 90 kph, and I started making time.

And the road went on and on and so did I. I forgot to count the kilometers and time. The bike was responding well after the slow first stretch, during which it had gotten heated up well. It was accelerating better and we started overtaking all and sundry, even Volvo’s. I stopped at Nellore for a cold drink and I realized that I had been riding for 3.5 hrs non stop and had covered over 240 kms in the meantime, now that’s a great time for any biker worth his salt.

I crossed over into Tamil Nadu at around 12.30 am and the roads were good but without signs and information boards. My mind was tired, but the bike was not. I was doing 90 in a straight stretch, when I suddenly see a huge mound of sand emerging through the headlight beam. Had to apply sudden brakes, to find that the road on this side of the road divider had been washed away, and I had to take a diversion. There was never a board saying “take diversion”. I reached my friend’s place at 1.30 am.

Diwali this year was spent in sleeping, sleeping and more sleeping. I woke up in the late afternoon and me and my friend went out on a ride to ECR. Bikers in chennai would know the beauty and calm that this particular road offers to the minds that have become cramped from the crammed streets in the city. Then we were sitting in Thiruvanmiyur beach till late in the night, watching the sky explode into a thousand brilliant colors, with fireworks. It was wonderful and gladdening.

I started back from Chennai on the evening of the next day, at around 5 pm, and it was the same route, and the same pleasures. Only this time, I had an ear pain and sore throat. But I still decided to move on, as I had to get back to office the next day.

I stopped after I entered Andhra for a cup of tea and a smoke. The ride was beginning to tire me and this is where the fun in any ride starts. The mind stops thinking and instincts take over the riding for you. So till you stop for a rest, you never know how long you have been riding or how much your ass aches! Its like a trance or a numbness that sets in with extreme pleasure on overdose.

I was consistently doing 90-100 kmph. My mind was not thinking. There was no song in my heart. I was not looking at the scenery along the road. I wouldn’t say I was looking at the road either. I don’t know what was happening, on the road or within me or to the motorcycle . But I know that I was riding fast and I was safe. I wasn’t going to die then, when I was being satisfied.

The wind was on my face, and there was a race in my heart, and there was speed. And then came home, and a good night’s sleep.

My ride today

2005-03-24T09:46:00.002-08:00

My ride today

This evening I went on a ride. When i started off from my hostel room, i did not know where i was headed. I go till the petrol station and find myself taking a right turn from there. So i decide to go to Kallanai. It is an old dam constructed many hundred years ago, is a marvel to conceive in those times.

I keep riding, slowly. Some school kid hitches a ride with me till some village. I tell him that i do not know any villages in this route. So he has to ask me to stop when he wants to get down. He gets down a few kilometers later and i am alone again.

I take the blind right turn, and am headed towards the dam, when i notice this bathing ghat. It has some 10 steps leading down to the river Cauvery, to take bath and draw water, only that the river is dry.

It is a wonderful sight. Its dusk and the birds are going home, the sparrows and the mynas, and the water fowl. No other people there. Absolute silence. A wonderful breeze.

I am sitting on my motorcycle. The beauty literally rolls out in front of my eyes. Sands directly under my feet. With wavy patterns and endless possibilities. Further up, there are the reeds, dark green, with white flowers. Bending to the breeze. And then there are the trees, teeming with birds, making preparations for the night. Giving life. And further up, there are the palms. Solitary and still. Permanence and poise.

I get down on to the river bed and start walking, sandals in hand and dragging my feet. There is a gentle bend to the river and beyond it I find a small puddle, teeming with egrets. They are having the final feast for the day. The water is drying out and they are choosing and picking in this abundance.

I sit down on a rock in the middle of the river bed. I then lie down on the stone. I gaze at the sky and i observe the birds. Birds, i think, are like humans. I saw one like me today! Ya, really!

He was flying alone, in full sight of a flock of birds, not caring to go too near. Yet interested in them! Having them near, just in case! How mean and selfish.

He would go near them, mix with them, then fall back and would sometimes even try to lead them. Then he would give up, and try following the flock for a change.

The flock went home, among a cluster of trees. Even then this guy was flying, seemingly without anything to accomplish. He was doing exactly what i was doing at the very moment. Hanging out, and may be even thinking! And he seemes to be a loner.

Then it started getting dark and the place a bit scary. So i start off again and have coffee and some bajji's (slices of banana or capsicum fried in oil and had with chilly or onion chutney). The ride back was fun, coz the road was full of paddy, being dried on the roads, by the enterprising Indian farmer. My motorcycle's underside is full of hay. And my mind is with that sparrow, who I think like me, needs his space, his freedom and his uniqueness.

Me and Suresh at Kodai

2005-03-24T09:46:00.001-08:00

Me and Suresh at Kodai

I was sitting in the shop in college, having a cold drink with a friend and her dad. It was very hot.

The class scheduled for that afternoon got cancelled. So I don’t have any classes for 36 hours. Such periods of inactivity do happen, but of late they have increased in frequency.

I went back to my room, already depressed, not knowing what to do for the rest of the afternoon, other than napping or chatting on yahoo messenger.

Suddenly a flash occurs in my brain. I have cash, I have my motorcycle. Why not go on a long trip somewhere? I went to Suresh’s room and tell him that the classes are cancelled. We decided to go to Kodaikanal.

We packed up and left at 4.30 pm. We filled up gas and did some basic repairs at the workshop and off we went. The first stop was supposed to be done at a dhabha at Dindigul (some 100 km from Trichy). Some 20 km from Dindigul, we got caught in a drizzle, and we stopped for coffee. We wait there for 10 minutes and we push on.

After some time, it started raining heavily, and we pulled by at a village tea shop. The shop had a thatch roofed front sitting space, and the whole place was crowded. We somehow managed to find space for ourselves, our helmets and our backpack. We could not afford to get wet because we were not carrying any dresses in our bag. If we get wet, we have to be wet the whole of the night, and the next day we would have to buy clothes in Kodaikanal.

We sat at the shop, talking, talking and drinking coffee after coffee, and in my case, cigarette after cigarette. The breeze was cool and there was no power in that shop. Was a very nice situation to be in. Surrounded by unknown people, talking about agriculture and local gossip.

It was 8 pm by the time it stopped raining. We started off and stopped at Batlakundu for dinner. We go to Nellai Nadar Mess and have parathas and chicken. Was really spicy and hot. It was 9 pm by this time, and the hill section of the ride was yet to be negotiated. We hurried to the ghat section and traveled about 10 km in the hills, when it started raining again. So we decided to turn back and go back to Batlakundu and stay there for the night.

The biggest looking lodging house was Crystal Palace, and the room would cost Rs. 550. They do not take credit cards. So we had to ride another 10 kms to find an ATM and draw cash. We finally went to our room and slept.

We woke up at 6 am and resumed the travel. We got to Kodaikanal at 9 am, incident free and safe. We had breakfast, dosas and pongals! they taste good outside our college mess.

We first went to Green Valley View, a.k.a., Suicide Point. The whole place was misty, with the sun showing in short intervals. Whenever we could see through the mist, we were staring down a vertical fall, many thousands of feet in depth, with the monkeys hanging on at the edge by the roots and grass. They were amazing, so unscared by the dimension of the fall or its consequence of it!

The sun showed for some time and we were able to enjoy the vista for some time. Then we left for Moir Point. The name Moir comes from the British engineer, Charles Moir, who lay the foundation for a road to Munnar, which would cut down around 30 km from the travel between the 2 places.

We parked our bike on the road and we have to climb down a steep incline. The incline was slippery, due to the rain during the previous night. We were being pulled down due to the steepness of the incline. Halfway through, our legs were shaking due to the balancing and by the effort we put in to go down slowly. We got to the end of the incline.

I will describe this place. The incline ends at a dead end. There you take a left turn and a small path leads to a rock. The path itself is an open danger. There is a wall of sand on one side and there is nothing on the other side. So grab the wall and pray to god that you don’t lose your grip! Then you come to a rock, you can sit on it. You better do that. Coz there is nothing on 2 sides of it! The place is still misty so we are not able to see the other side of the rock. Slowly it clears and God, I have never seen a more awesome vista. Miles and miles of green in front of us, some thousands of feet below us though. Untouched forests. So many shades of green. No civilization exists when you see from there.

Every time I tried peer over the rock, my legs started shivering, inadvertently. Then we devised an idea to peer over into the abyss below. We would crawl over to the edge and look down and crawl back! And it worked. We were indeed looking down at an abyss, at least 3000 feet in depth, with the cliff face dotted with roots and grass. The bottom of the abyss was a vast valley, a very dense forest.

We manage to crawl back to the safety of some distance from the edge and we even managed to take some photos of ourselves in this place and of the place itself. The climb up to the road was like a punishment for all those late mornings, lazy afternoons, and heavy dinners and the many cigarettes!

After this, we did not have energy to go anywhere, to even drive the bike. So we went to the lake, found a nice spot near the water, along the road and sat down there and were talking till lunch.

Then we went to a Punjabi hotel and had a good lunch. We then went back to the same spot along the lake shore. We had planned to stay for one more day up there, but decided against it and departed from there at 4.30 pm, planning to get back to college at 10 pm.

We were barreling down the roads. Good roads, less upcoming traffic. Never stopped anywhere for 40 km. Suddenly I felt the bike wobbling a bit. Then we found that the back wheel was flat. We took out the tool kit and started to dismantle the wheel. We did not have the right spanner to remove the wheel. We finally managed to do it with a larger sized spanner, in a quite ingenious way, thanks to Suresh and a good Samaritan.

I stopped a bus and got on, to find a mechanic shop. The bus was so crowded that I had to hang on on the foot board with one foot, with the tyre in my free hand and one leg dangling outside the bus. The bus was surprisingly fast and my arm was aching like hell, hanging on to dear life, lest I should fall out!

I find a mechanic shop in a village, get the tyre fixed and I head back on another bus. I sat down near the driver to tell him where to drop me. It was getting dark and I saw a motorcycle parked sans its rear wheel, and a person standing next to it. I stop the bus and get down. The bus went away. I realize that it was not my bike, and the guy was not Suresh. I had down at the wrong place! I ran behind the bus to make him stop again. But he never heard my heart felt cries for help!

I had to beg another traveller on a motorcycle to give me a lift. He did and I got back to our spot of bother. We start fitting the wheel again, only to find that we had lost a nut without which we cannot fix the wheel! And it was dark already. We start looking for it. Crawling and feeling for it on the road and by the rocky pavement.

Two cars stop, and some 10 guys get off them. They are on a high and decide to focus their head lights and their attention to help us. So 12 people looking for a nut! Still no results.

The guys decide to leave and they hand over a candle to help our search. So we start searching using a candle and our cell phones. Then 2 guys bless us with the headlight of their Bullet. They are drunk too. When we were losing hope, they started searching and Suresh finally found the nut. Someone had kicked it to the pavement. 90 minutes of searching. The world is a nice place and people are mostly good to other people – my lesson for the day.

We quickly fit the wheel and start moving, only to find that we had not fitted the brake properly and we did not know how to fix it. So we had to drive for 30 km without brakes. We finally find a mechanic and get the whole thing fixed, and off we go, towards home and rest.

We stopped for dinner at Dindigul at 10 pm. And chicken has never tasted so good!

We reach college at 2 am, without further calamities. We had clocked 515 km in a day. Every bone, joint and muscle was aching, esp. the posterior muscles. But there was a feeling of contentment, a sense of achievement, of an adventure successful. Of being free, roaming with no one to hold me. Of the wind against my face, pure air in my system. No baggage to carry. I was feeling light, to put it simply.

Dharasuram…. Our exploits

2005-03-24T09:46:00.000-08:00

Dharasuram…. Our exploits

I decide to go on a ride someplace. No classes. No work. No assignments. Nothing to do, but sitting at the shop and chatting up people.
I don’t know where to go. I go to Suresh’s place to get my camera and he suggests Dharasuram, a temple of the Chola era, being restored as a World Heritage Site. Its about 100 km from Trichy, near Kumbakonam.
Its about 1.30 in the afternoon and me and VVD leave college on our motorcycle. Its blazing hot. VVD starts being his own creative self, right from the first km of our ride.
“My bag goes wherever I go”, he starts off. And I know the ride is going to be fun.
We go fill up petrol and check air and off we go. After filling up petrol, I ask VVD who owns HCL Technologies, the company in which he is going to work in a month. I was not disappointed. I got a extensive report on its promoter, operations, business arms, competitive advantages and distinctive advantages. We had covered 20 kms.
There is a police check post on the way to Tanjore. A bus is waiting to pass through and I overtake it at a very slow speed. This guy spits on my feet from inside of the bus. I mutter something nasty at him, whoever that guy was. I stop at the check post and ask the constable for some water to clean my feet. I do that and the report on HCL resumes, in a poetic and intellectually inspired manner from VVD.
Just as we are done with HCL, VVD remembers that he had a Emerging Trends in IT class the previous morning. He decides to enlighten me on Dot Net, the new basher from Microsoft that will apparently eat up Java, and is doing just that. That dot net exists and means so much to the IT sector was news for me. In VVD’s style, it was like the word from the horse’s mouth. I could not question anything!
We got hungry some 40 kms from home. So we stop for coffee at a shop in a village. We ended up having parathas and chicken, made in the traditional south Indian way. This is a funny episode. The server gives us 2 parathas each and goes off to fetch the kurma. He returns and finds the parathas lying wholesome. So the server does the service of tearing them into eatable pieces and pours kurma on them. We make it into a workable mixture and manouver around the plantain leaf and eat it. The next round of parathas arrive. We sit simply, expecting him to tear the parathas. This time around, the server thinks we are bums and just pours the kurma on the untouched parathas and leaves. I look at VVD and his lower lip pouts out like a kid’s, when something of it is taken away. Such an innocent expression coming from the face of a 25 year old guy!
We move on, after a heavy lunch and a cold drink. Feeling sleepy. We cross Tanjore without calamity and reach the bypass around Tanjore. The road has so many turns and major intersections that we had to ask so many people the way around. And VVD comes to my help even now. I usually stop the bike and ask “anna, which way to kumbakonam”. But VVD shouts “Kumbakonam anna!!!!” at the top of his voice. He startled the wits of one person and he scared off a poor man struggling to pedal his rickshaw.
We had to stop again, for some refreshments, for the heat was killing us. We drink coffee and water and reach Dharasuram. We ask our way to the temple and we find that the temple opens pnly at 4 pm. It was only 3.30 then. So we walk around the stonewalls of the temple and we find a way into the temple through the construction site. The walk and the corridors of the temple are paved with stone and its HOT! We run to the nearest shade and we are not disappointed with our efforts. Its cool under the shade and we walk around the corridors.
I will describe the temple now. It is a very ancient temple and it has very intricate sculptures and very fine work on stone. It’s a Shaivaite temple, the presiding deity being Lord Shiva as Iravadheeshwarar. The shrine is protected by the Archeological Survey of India and is a UNESCO World Heritage Monument. The latter is funding the restoration work. They were giving serial numbers to the various stones and literally taking the temple apart and putting it back in shape. The pillars are carved so well and so intricately. The shrine is devoid of any visitors, at this hour. So we have it all to ourselves.
We find an opening in the ceiling, and a ladder conveniently near. So we decide to go on to the roof. We go there and take some snaps and look at the temple’s tower from close quarters. It’s so quiet and desolate. Awesome feeling it was. Then someone among the construction workers orders us down from the terrace, and scolds us for going up there. I have never been on a temple terrace before. It was definitely worth the abuses sustained, and the shaky ladder!
We climb down and generally walk through the temple. We reach the sanctum sanctorum. We pray and meditate for some time. And we sit on some steps and take photographs of ourselves. Our VVD made it a point to talk personally to every deity within the temple premises. He even became the royal DJ at the dance hall of the temple. He even mixed a new number in his vocal chords right there. Hats off to his creative mind!
In the same hall, there was a spot where there was light permeating through a small glass window on the ceiling. It created an effect of a spotlight in the otherwise dark room. VVD stood under the light, with arms reaching for the light, like a prophet or like a rock star seeking ecstasy through the light. I did the same thing, but never even got close to aura that VVD was able to create at the spot.
We walk out of the temple, thirsty and tired. There is another temple at Patteeswaram, some 5-6 kms from here. Supposedly a temple of similar dates and dimensions. But we decide not to go there and go to a shop, where I devour a liter of cold water and VVD drinks a Pepsi.
We start back and I decide to drive fast and we are barreling down the road. Overtaking everybody. I don’t know why, but every buffalo and goat near the road tried to get itself killed at my hands. Had to brake hard so many times.
We crossed Tanjore and I had to fill up petrol. I decide to do it at the next petrol bunk, rather than backtracking into Tanjore. We keep coming toward home, when a very weird thing happens. We run out of gas!
The eternal rider in me wakes up! I hitch a ride with a motor cyclist and reach the next village, buy some kerosene mixed petrol and get a lift from some truck and get back to my bike in 15 min. we start off again. We stopped at the petrol bunk. It was just 2 kms further from the spot where we had been stranded.
We get back to college in one piece. And I take a warm shower and I walk out of my room, in a clean shirt and jeans. Feels so good. To be back after a brief break, feeling fresh and new. It’s a beautiful life.